Mitt’s (Still) Impossible Math

[The modification to Romney's original plan was that he will now] cap the amount of deductions wealthy people can take. Basically this means that Romney’s plan would limit the amount of money rich people could save via the tax code at a finite level (he’s offered several possibilities: $17,000, $25,000, or $50,000). This is probably actually a very good idea, considering that rich people enjoy a whopping 80 percent of the savings from itemized deductions, but is it enough to pay for Romney’s $5 trillion cut?

The verdict:

No. Not even close.

While it’s difficult to estimate because Romney has provided so few details, even the most generous version of Romney’s deduction cap would raise about only $1.3 trillion — about a quarter of the full cost — according to their new study, which was released yesterday afternoon. And that doesn’t include the additional roughly $2.5 trillion it would cost to extend all the Bush tax cuts, as Romney plans to. So he’s over $6 trillion short for the decade, and starting with a big deficit.